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But they when assembled asked him, and said to him, Our Lord, at this time wilt thou restore [fn] the kingdom to Israel ? ⁷ He saith to them, This is not yours to know the time or the times which the Father hath reposed in his own authority:⁸ but when the Spirit of Holiness hath come upon you, you shall receive power to be made unto me the witnesses, in Urishlem and in all Jehud, and also among the Shomroyee, and unto the confines of the earth.⁹ And as these he said, while they beheld him, he was taken up, and the cloud received him, and he was covered from their eyes.¹⁰ And while they looked to the heavens [fn] as he went, two men were found standing with them in white vestments; ¹¹ and they said to them, Men, Galiloyee, why stand you looking to the heavens 3 ? this Jeshu who is taken up from you into the heavens will so come as you have seen him ascend into the heavens.

¹² And afterward they returned to Urishlem from the mount which is called the place of Olives, which is over against Urishlem, and distant from her as seven stadias.¹³ And after they had entered, they ascended to that upper room in which were Petros, and Juhanon, and Jakub, and Andros, and Philipos, and Thoma, and Mathai, and Bar Tolmai, and Jakub bar Halphai, and Shemun the Zealous, and Jihuda bar Jakub.¹⁴ These altogether persevered in prayer with one soul, with the women, and with Mariam the mother of Jeshu, and with his brethren.

¹⁵ AND in those days arose Shemun Kipha in the midst of the disciples;-now there was there an assembly of men as an hundred and twenty;-and said,¹⁶ Men, brethren, it was right for that scripture to be fulfilled which the Spirit of Holiness had before spoken, by the mouth of David, concerning Jihuda, who was the leader of them who took Jeshu.¹⁷ For he had numbered with us, and had part in this ministry.¹⁸ This is he who obtained the field with the wages of sin, and fell upon his face on the ground, and was severed in his middle, and all his bowels were shed forth.¹⁹ And this hath been known of all who dwell in Urishlem; and so is called that field in the language of the country Hakel-damo, the interpretation of which is, A field of blood.²⁰ For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let his habitation be desert, And no inhabitant be therein, And his ministry let another take.²¹ There needeth therefore one from these men who have been with us in all this time in which our Lord Jeshu hath come in and gone out among us,²² which went forth from the baptism of Juhanon until the day that he was taken up from (being) with us, to be with us a witness of his resurrection.²³ And they set up two: Jauseph, who is called Barshaba, who is surnamed Justus, and Mathia.²⁴ And praying, they said, Thou, Lord, (who) knowest the hearts of all, show the one whom thou choosest of these two,²⁵ that he may receive the part in the ministry and the apostleship from which Jihuda separated, to go unto his place.²⁶ And they cast the lots, and it came up unto Mathia; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.